April 15 - The latest name to hit the rumor mill surrounding the purchase of the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche and Pepsi Center is local money manager Tom Marsico.

Founder and chief executive officer of Denver-based Marsico Capital Management and former money management guru at Janus Funds, Marsico is said to be eyeing the the Denver Nuggets, Avalanche, and the Pepsi Center. "Assets like that are an interest to us," said Chris Marsico, who runs Marsico Capital with his brother Tom. "In general, assets that cannot be duplicated."

Chris Marsico stressed that Marsico Capital, a family of funds estimated to be worth $15 billion, is not interested in buying the sports teams and arena.

"Now, we are talking about Tom, not Marsico funds," he said.

Tom Marsico was unavailable for comment.

Marsico is the latest to ponder a bid for the former Ascent Entertainment Group's sports-related assets, which are now controlled by Douglas County-based Liberty Media.

Liberty bought Ascent and its majority interest in On Command Corp., a supplier of cable movies to hotel guests, on March 27 for $755 million.

Liberty Media has been courting several wealthy magnates interested in buying the arena and the local sports teams that play there.

The package is sporting a price tag in the range of $450 million.

Sports industry and financial pundits have estimated that a buyer would need to drop a cash payment of somewhere between $150 million and $200 million on the teams and the new Pepsi Center, and finance the rest.

The several suitors reportedly pondering a purchase are:

Wal-Mart heir and developer Stan Kroenke, 52, who owns a noncontrolling interest in the Super Bowl-champion St. Louis Rams. He is the only prospective buyer known to have met with Ascent representatives.

John McMullen, 82, who 18 years ago bought the Colorado Rockies hockey team, moved it east and called it the New Jersey Devils.

Alan Cohen, a former owner of the Boston Celtics.

Pat Bowlen, owner of the Denver Broncos, who is said to have partnered with local sports icon John Elway.

David McDavid, a Texas car dealer who this week received payment for his 12.5 percent interest in the Dallas Mavericks, which sold to Mark Cuban, a neophyte Internet billionaire, for a staggering $280 million.

And now there's 44-year-old Tom Marsico.

For nine years, Marsico managed Janus Funds, Denver's largest and most prominent mutual fund company.

As a high-profile fund manager, Marsico's Janus Twenty Fund returned more than 20 percent a year between 1988 and 1997.

In 1997, Marsico left Janus and built Marsico Capital. In February last year, Marsico sold half of his firm to BankAmerica Corp., for $150 million.

At the time, its assets under management were nearly $5 billion. This year the firm has close to $15 billion in assets.

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